Head gasket repair on 81 e150 ford van 300 6cyl a/t no a/c

blown head gasket

Most of the time oil in the cooling system is from a leaking head gasket or cracked cyl head. Usually head gaskets on 3.8 Ford engines.

Head gasket could be leaking from oil passageway to coolant passage without significant amount of coolant going to oil. A new head gasket may have to be installed to repair this problem.

The Chrysler minivan products all had leaking problems. I have had 5 or 6 different Dodge or Plymouth minivans from 88 to 99. How bad is it. The most common thing is Valve cover leaks. Front and rear seals in the engine leak as well as the oil pan gasket. If its leaking a little bit at a time open the hood and look at the front and rear of the engine. Do you see grease and oil that has gone down the sides of the engine? Do you see a lot of grease on the engine with some clean streaks going through it. You may be able to see where its leaking from. If you know someone that knows what their doing have them change the leaky gasket/s. If not you can probably have it repaired for less than buying another van unless other things are seriously wrong with the van.
Hope this helps... Dale

U have a leaking engine cylinder head gasket, very common on this van.

Well the head gasket job will cover the valve cover gasket ( you have to do one to get to the other) Bring it to a repair shop its about a $1500 job.

Hi, you will need to do a compression check on all cylinders, compare results, IF this is ok, check spark plug cap, lead, rotor arm, distributor cap.


You say plug was "wet & blackened", was that fuel (plug not firing) or oil ( oil getting up past rings into bore )
The latter is expensive. (strip/re bore etc. etc.)

Under the engine, between the rear of the engine and the front of the transmission. It will be on a mount with an oil cooler, (it has metal fins) on the driver's side.

Drain the radiator, Remove the upper and lower radiator hoses, Disconnect the trans. cooler lines. These are "hard" lines connected to the radiator approx. 5/16 lines. Remove the mounting bolts of the shroud (if equipped) Remove the mounting bolts for the radiator and lift straight up. Installation is the reverse. Be sure to fill your radiator with a 50/50 mix of coolant to water. Start and run van and check for leaks.